OSHA cites, fines two Colorado contractors in deadly fall

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Dive Brief:

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited and fined two Colorado construction companies in relation to a fatal fall that took place on a Greenwood Village, Colorado, jobsite in March 2018. The two face proposed penalties of $177,893.

According to the agency, Colorado Springs, Colorado-based firms Hammers Construction and Montes Construction did not provide sufficient fall protection and did not keep employees from standing on the mid-rails of scissor lifts. The deceased employee was installing metal roof panels on a storage unit building when he fell. OSHA has proposed a $97,002 fine for Hammers, but the final total is pending abatement activity by Hammers. The OSHA database does not yet reflect a proposed fine total for Montes, but using the agency's figures, Montes' fine should be just shy of $81,000.

OSHA issued Montes two serious fall-related violation citations in January, which will now result in a willful citation, and fined the company a total of $6,652. The company was able to negotiate a lower fine and payment plan in the amount of $3,992. Hammers Construction was the subject of a fall-related complaint in September 2016, but OSHA did not fine nor cite the company in that case.

Dive Insight:

When President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, there was an abrupt end to what it called a "shaming" style of Obama-era press releases issued prior to Trump's inauguration. However, that doesn’t mean OSHA lightened up on enforcement, particularly when it comes to levying big fines.

The single largest fine that the administration has proposed since Trump took office was against Atlantic Drain Service in April 2017 after two of its employees were killed when a trench they were working in collapsed in October of the previous year. OSHA fined the company $1,475,813 and issued it 18 citations. Atlantic is still in the fine protest process.

While Atlantic faces the biggest single fine since Trump took office, commercial and residential roofing contractor Great White Construction, based in Jacksonville, Florida, has accumulated the largest total. OSHA issued the company a total of $1,523,710 in fines — one for $850,127 and the other for $673,582 in August 2017. The agency said the company has been cited almost two dozen times since 2012 for violations, including those for fall protection and eye hazards, and put Great White in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program.